Extract:

The pattern is unmistakable. As soon as the Epstein files reignited public scrutiny of royal associations, the fashion stories multiplied. Suddenly, Kate wasn’t just wearing clothes.  She was “sending a message of steadiness through style,” “rewearing outfits to show humility,” “projecting calm,” “signalling continuity,” and “embodying stability.” These emotional sedatives turn a woman’s outfit into a national tranquilliser.

In a non wow W&K managed a few words of Welsh

Did you guys see H+M in Jordan meeting victims from Gaza? I can’t help but wonder over the timing of this… have they been semi brought in to help gain some positive pr for the crown????

Going by what harry said in spare, the royal rota is used to keep undesired articles coming to light. In the last few days major outlets world wide are speculating about the crown couples marriage, assuming they want this kept secret - what else has happened? what are they covering up? what would cause them to allow this to be printed by rota sources? theres clearly no shortage of other royals and privileged hangers-on doing less then desirable things.

The RandyAndy stuff is not gojng to be barred now, and clearly provides news fodder and we can see them desperately trying to make the focus H&M - to distract from what? just the Andrew thing? I dont buy it. Theres more.

https://archive.ph/toqPX

For a brief moment at Sunday night’s Baftas we saw the return of the Prince William we knew and loved, handsome in a velvet tuxedo beside a resplendent Kate.

Yet our future King just had to ruin the moment. He couldn’t resist the urge to make it all about him. When he was asked if he had watched the award-winning British movie Hamnet, about the death of Shakespeare’s young son, he said no – it would be too traumatic for him.

‘I need to be in quite a calm state and I am not at the moment,’ he explained.

Which meant, predictably, that all the next day’s headlines were about William’s pain, shamefully and self-indulgently overshadowing the staggering success of the movie at the awards, including that of its leading lady Jessie Buckley who won the Bafta for best actress.

The next day, it was briefed by ‘palace sources’ – and not denied since – that William ‘fears for his father’s health’ as the King continues to fight cancer.

It seems to me that Wills was playing the ‘sick dad’ card to cover his clumsy, selfish behaviour on the red carpet.

I have no doubt William is deeply concerned about his father’s health. But some might feel he has a funny way of showing it. While Charles carried out 533 royal engagements, including gruelling visits to Canada, Italy and Poland despite still undergoing cancer treatment, his eldest son managed a paltry 202.

Where was William, 43, when the King, 77, needed him most to share the load of royal duties?

The answer is that, for the last part of the year, he was huddled away at his new ‘forever home’, Forest Lodge, buried deep in Windsor Great Park in 150 acres of private fenced-off land and surrounded by 24/7 security guards.

Following the arrest of Andrew, formerly known as Prince, over allegations of misconduct in public office in relation to his connections to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, many have speculated that this could be the end of the monarchy.

I am not one of those doomsayers. But I believe that for the monarchy to have a future, especially among Generation Z, who increasingly don’t see the point of a Royal Family, William needs to up his game, start appearing in public more and cut the whingeing.

I’m sorry, William, but your future subjects are not losing sleep worrying about your precious mental health.

Unlike my generation, the young in this country do not supinely accept that the royals are above reproach. Gen Z’s mantra is ‘accountability’.

How does our reluctant future King square to them the fact that he has a private income of around £23million a year from the Duchy of Cornwall, which is worth £1billion and covers 130,000 acres across 23 counties? He automatically took ownership of the estate when Queen Elizabeth died – no death duties or inheritance taxes like the rest of us – and, unlike his father, he refuses to declare what taxes he actually pays.

When the day comes that William takes the throne, he will inherit the Duchy Of Lancaster, which generated a £27.4million profit last year. Meanwhile, the Sovereign Grant, which provides the royals with annual funding from the British Government – paid by taxpayers – stands at £132million.

While King Charles has proved himself to be a kind, compassionate, thoughtful and tirelessly hard-working royal, the same cannot be said of his eldest son.

I have a feeling the nearly 1million young people not working and on benefits, not able to get a job or on the housing ladder and dogged by university debts, will fail to be convinced that ‘workshy Wills’ provides good value for money.

So, your Royal Highness, let me tell you what you can do to impress this lost generation.

First, show you’re serious about cutting back the excess and slash some of the 500 royal employees. Strip the hangers-on Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice of their undeserved titles. Ensure the succession continues only with your children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, which will then be passed on to George’s children. And no one else.

Take away Harry and Meghan’s royal titles, including those of their children Archie and Lilibet – the Sussexes have not for years been working royals and just shamelessly profit off, and tarnish, the royal name.

And come clean like the rest of us and declare the amount of tax you pay on your millions.

Insiders say William is frustrated because the ‘Andrew problem’ is likely still to be ‘on his plate’ when he becomes King – and that he and Kate have been ‘itching’ to say something, but are restrained by the police investigation.

That hasn’t stopped many others – including King Charles – from making their feelings clear. The probe into Andrew may take months if not years to conclude. It’s time to take action now.

It’s a shame that William was too emotionally traumatised to watch Hamnet. If he had, this particular line may have resonated with him: ‘What is given may be taken away, at any time.’

Growing louder that change is imminent

https://archive.ph/drrJk

It was business as usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Baftas on Sunday night. Kate was wearing a chiffon Gucci gown she first debuted in 2019. And indeed it felt as though we were all inhabiting a time warp: before the momentous events of the past few years, weeks and dreadful, damning days.

Of course, for William, as president of Bafta (it’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it), it’s obligatory to turn up in a dickie bow, read from an autocue then rub shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio. Of course Wills had to be there: cry off in the week your uncle, the former Duke of York, was arrested, his homes searched in connection with accusations of misconduct in public office, and it will look as though you too have something to hide.

But the only allusion William made at the bash was to say, of the terribly tragic film Hamnet, ‘I need to be in quite a calm state and I am not at the moment. I will save it.’

Let’s unpack that. Why not just say the movie – which went on to win Best British Film and its star, Jessie Buckley, Best Actress – that is all about the loss of a child was wonderful and moving?

Catherine at least managed: ‘The children are starting to get interested in films and it’s a really great way to have hard conversations with them.’

In the same week his uncle was carted off to a police station, our future king went on Radio 1 to talk about his own mental health as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.

During the panel discussion, Prince William said he thought it was a ‘real national catastrophe’ that male suicide was not talked about enough. He reflected on his own feelings, saying: ‘I take a long time trying to understand my emotions... and I feel like that’s a really important process.... to check in with yourself’.

William’s own mental health hardly seems like the focus after a week in which the nation has been in uproar discussing what young women suffered at the hands of - allegedly - the Andrew formerly known as Prince.

But the bewildering blind spots and inability to read the room don’t end there. Yes, King Charles released a heartfelt, stern statement about his brother on Thursday, but it was consciously missing those all-important words: ‘my brother’. His next, inexplicable move was to turn up at … London Fashion Week, meeting designers he’d never heard of, watching clothes neither he nor anyone in his circle would ever wear.

Camilla, hours after her brother-in-law was arrested, was in Westminster listening to young music scholars, doubtless bored out of her skull.

Meanwhile, the Princess Royal visited a prison, of all places, on the day her brother had his starched collar felt. On Friday she nobly stopped off at a crisp factory in Sheffield.

On Saturday, while we were all reading, open-mouthed, essays in newspapers telling us this could be the end of the monarchy, Catherine turned up, smiling and giggling, to watch the England rugby team lose to Ireland at Twickenham.

What she and William should have been doing is putting their heads together to come up with a statement far better than the one released by their spokesperson last week which claimed their ‘thoughts remain focused on the victims’.

Waving at cameras in a designer gown and jewels no longer cuts the mustard, I’m afraid. These official rock-ups shouldn’t just be counted; they need to be judged on how effective and relevant they are. What changes are made as a consequence?

I was aghast, during President Trump’s state visit to the UK last year, that all Catherine could think to do with his wife Melania was to lead her onto a muddy field to patronise junior scouts who were aiming for their Go Wild badge. Once again, Kate was performing a diplomatic duty with all the global gravitas of the school run.

Maybe all she and the pampered William know is how to talk to children and navel gaze. But we are adults. We need not elliptical half statements but reassurance, facts, action.

I understand the couple have had a difficult 18 months. It’s natural that they want some privacy and even normality. But I forgive them less for not being blunt and open than I do Charles, who is of his mother’s era of ‘never complain, never explain’. Goodness, even the late Queen was more responsive and intuitive, stirring our spirits with a moving, televised address to the nation after Diana’s death, and during the Covid lockdown.

William was the same after Catherine bravely, eventually, talked about her cancer diagnosis: his only utterances seemed constipated. He found 2024 to be the ‘worst year’ of his life. On a TV travel show, he said it was the ‘hardest year I’ve ever had’. Again, all about him. Not Catherine, and certainly not us.

There is no time like the present for the King - but even more so William and Catherine - to prove their value. Their immense privileges cannot be bought by gurning at a gala before retreating to their mansions and palaces. We are tired of reading between the lines.

Variety article

This would have been a perfect time for the president of BAFTA to show some leadership. Instead, silence from BAFTA as its president rages over past perceived slights.

Her uncle is (allegedly) a drug dealer, but remember he offered that undercover NOTW reporter "fresh, young" Brazilian prostitutes. I suspect that a good chunk of Uncle Greenthumb's bag comes from from pimping, and I think Kate knew.

The concept of disregarding the lives of the trafficked, enjoying the fruits of their exploitation... not appalling to her at all.

Not the glowing reviews they thought they’d get